The Binance Boom

Getting To Know The World’s Top Crypto Exchange & The People Behind It

Founded in 2017, Binance has quickly become the most popular cryptocurrency exchange in the game. They process millions of transactions daily, with $1.5 billion in trade volume. Binance works with over 100 crypto wallets and offers more than 120 different altcoins to users from around the globe.

The company got off to a hot start when they raised over $15 million last summers during their Initial Coin Offering (ICO), for the popular Binance Coin (BNB). At press time a single Binance Coin is trading at around $13.73. Moreover, BNB is currently the 17th most valuable altcoin by market capitalization.

Those who use Binance Coin’s to complete their transaction on the exchange will enjoy a 50% discount on trading fees. Due to BNB’s success, several newer exchanges have also decided to adopt the ICO model and create their own cryptocurrency – thus making Binance something on an industry trendsetter.

This multi-language crypto exchange was founded by blockchain enthusiasts Chagpeng Zhao and Yi He.

Binance’s CEO – Chagpeng Zhao

Prior to starting the popular trading site, the company’s current CEO Changpeng Zhao was best known for helping develop the bitcoin block explorer service known as Blockchain.info. The native of Jiangsu, China was also the chief technology officer of OKCoin – a digital asset trading platform.

When asked how his early experience with OKCoin helped him make Binance successful, the 41-year-old CEO told Cointelegraph,

“We had to figure out by trial and error back then. There’s another important factor. Having that experience also taught me that there’s a lot to improve. That’s the industry of exchange, and even today Binance has a lot of room to improve. A lot of people, when I started Binance, said, ‘Look, there are thousands of exchanges in the world already. It’s a very competitive space. Why do you want to do another one? It’s not going to work.’ Those kinds of comments did not deter me because, given the experience and the knowledge that I had, that helped a lot.”

In his teenage years, Zhao even worked at McDonald’s to help support his family. However, with a net worth of around $1.39 billion, it’s safe to assume that Changpeng Zhao won’t be serving Big Macs anytime soon.

After founding Binance, the former McDonald’s employee rose from relative obscurity to becoming the 3rd wealthiest person in the crypto industry, in less than a year’s time.

Binance’s Co-Founder – Yi He

Zhao’s colleague and fellow co-founder Yi He also has a very interesting background. Prior to becoming involved with cryptocurrency, she was a television personality who hosted travel shows. Before Binance, the former TV hostess also worked for OKCoin as well as Yixia Technology – a company that provides a mobile platform to share videos.

She was one of the first females to discuss bitcoin on Chinese television, which earned her the nickname “the first lady of the Chinese bitcoin world.”

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